Anti-terrorism: Defensive measures used to reduce the vulnerability of individuals and property to terrorist acts, to include limited response and containment by local forces.

Anti-terrorism Awareness: Fundamental knowledge of the terrorist threat and measures to reduce personal vulnerability to terrorism. See also anti-terrorism.

Asset: Any potential target of terrorist attack, most commonly people, equipment, a building, or an outdoor venue (in whole or in part).

Blast Curtains: Heavy curtains made of blast resistant materials that could protect the occupants of a room from flying debris.

Blast Vulnerability Envelope: The resources around an explosive device that will be damaged by the blast.

Clear Zone: An area that is clear of visual obstructions and landscape materials that could conceal a threat or perpetrator.

Controls: The countermeasures for vulnerabilities. There are three types: Preventative Controls reduce the likelihood of a deliberate attack, protect vulnerabilities, and make an attack unsuccessful or reduce its impact; Corrective Controls reduce the impact of an attack and restore the plant to normal operation; and Detective Controls discover attacks and activate preventative or corrective controls.

Counter-intelligence: Information gathered and activities conducted to protect against espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage, or assassinations conducted for or on behalf of foreign powers, organizations, or persons; or international terrorist activities, excluding personnel, physical, document, and communications security programs.

Counter-terrorism (CT): Offensive measures taken to prevent, deter, and respond to terrorism.

Deceit: Adversary actions directed at overcoming elements of the physical protection system by normal submission to an element with the expectation that unauthorized conditions, such as a fake badge or shielded material, will not be detected.

Domestic Terrorism: Terrorism perpetrated by the citizens of one country against fellow countrymen. That includes acts against citizens of a second country when they are in the host country, and not the principal or intended target.

Ductile Materials: Materials that are malleable and will absorb impact loads without breaking.

Electronic Security Systems (ESS): That part of physical security concerned with the safeguarding of personnel and property by use of electronic systems. These systems include, but are not limited to, intrusion detection systems (IDS), automated entry control systems (AECS), and video assessment systems.

Exclusive Zone: An area around an asset which has controlled entry with highly restrictive access.

Force: Adversary actions directed at overcoming elements of the physical protection system by overt aggressive activities, which the adversary expects to be detected and thus is prepared to forcefully defend against the response.

Force Protection: Security program designed to protect military personnel, civilian employees, family members, facilities, and equipment, in all locations and situations, accomplished through planned and integrated application of combating terrorism, physical security, operations security, personal protective services, and supported by intelligence, counterintelligence, and other security programs.

High-Risk Target: Any asset or facility that, because of mission sensitivity, ease of access, isolation, and symbolic value, may be an especially attractive or accessible terrorist target.

Internal Damping: Anything that absorbs some or all of the impact from a blast.

Military Facility: A facility subject to the custody, jurisdiction, or administration of any Department of Defense (DoD) Component. This term includes, but is not limited to, military reservations, installations, bases, posts, camps, stations, arsenals, or laboratories where a DoD Component has operational responsibility and has responsibility for facility security and defense.

Non-Exclusive Zone: An area around an asset that has controlled entry but less restrictive access than a exclusive zone.

Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical Weapons (NBC): Also called Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Weapons that are characterized by their capability to produce mass casualties.

Physical Security: The part of security concerned with measures/concepts designed to safeguard personnel; to prevent unauthorized access to equipment, installations, material, and documents; and to safeguard them against espionage, sabotage, damage, and theft.

Sacrificial Roof or Wall: Walls or roofs that can be lost in a blast without damage to the primary asset.

Safe Haven: Secure areas within the interior of the facility. A Safe Haven should be designed such that it requires more time to penetrate by a terrorist attack than it takes for the response force to reach the protected area to rescue the occupants.

Stand-off Distance: The distance between an asset and a threat.

Stand-off Weapons: Weapons that are launched from a distance at a target (anti-tank weapons, mortars, etc.).

Stealth: Adversary actions directed at overcoming elements of the physical protection system by avoiding or deactivating these elements in an attempt to prevent detection.

Terrorism: 1.The calculated use of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological. 2. The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence against individuals or property to coerce or intimidate governments or societies, often to achieve political, religious, or ideological objectives.

Threats: Things that can go wrong or that can ‘attack’ the processing system. Threats are always present.

Threat Analysis: In anti-terrorism, threat analysis is a continual process of compiling and examining all available information concerning potential terrorist activities by terrorist groups that could target a facility. A threat analysis will review the factors of a terrorist group’s existence, capability, intentions, history, and targeting, as well as the security environment within which friendly forces operate. Threat analysis is an essential step in identifying probability of terrorist attack and results in a threat assessment. See also anti-terrorism.

Vital equipment: Equipment, systems, or components whose failure or destruction would cause unacceptable interruption to a national security program or an unacceptable impact on the health and safety of the public. Operations offices are responsible for identifying the vital equipment located at facilities under their purview.

Vulnerability: 1. The susceptibility of a nation or military force to any action by any means through which its war potential or combat effectiveness may be reduced or its will to fight diminished. 2. The characteristics of a system which cause it to suffer a definite degradation (incapability to perform the designated mission) as a result of having been subjected to a certain level of effects in an unnatural (man-made) hostile environment.

L. Scott Harrell is the managing principal of CompassPoint Investigations, a thriving private investigation agency based in Pensacola, Florida, as well as the digital marketing and competitive intelligence consultancy, Broadside Incorporated. Find him at http://www.gplus.to/scottharrell